Samantha

The addition of the ABC logo to WKBW was a matter of time, as in "your affiliation agreement basically asks you to put in an ABC logo".

That is one heck of a cut of the Team to Watch theme. The open graphics are from TVbD (and appear in their 1994 demo).

Nexstar and Granite are too good a fit for each other. If the two companies were to combine, Nexstar would control every station of consequence in Peoria, Illinois. Nexstar owns WMBD (CBS) and controls WYZZ (Fox, Sinclair). Granite owns WEEK (NBC) and operates WAOE (MyTV, Four Seasons Broadcasting/Venture Technologies) and WHOI (ABC, Barrington --> Sinclair). It's unclear how some of the pending sale relationships are going to work out in Peoria, especially with Sinclair's pending buyout of Barrington that will give it a duopoly where it doesn't control either station. To operate its duopoly of WHOI/WYZZ, Sinclair would need to start a separate news department and find studio space, as WHOI's news department is a sidecar to WEEK and both stations are co-located with their parents. Something similar, as mentioned, would happen in Fort Wayne, where Nexstar would control WPTA, WISE and WFFT, but in this case an independent outlet does stand (LIN's WANE-TV). Third on the priority list is Syracuse. Nexstar and Sinclair would become the only station owners for all major stations (pending Barrington deal).

Finally found the Internet Archive source for that WFMY 1989 clip: http://archive.org/details/tobacco_amy99d00 Two full WFMY newscasts (the 6pm, plus a 7pm "Eye on the Piedmont" with open one hour in), the evening's CBS Evening News and USA Today on TV.

What a treat. I can't identify the theme (and I put some audio gain on it in Audacity to increase the volume). I'd say this went into 1989. The graphics certainly did. --- WDBB 1985 open, with JAM's Thematic News Package: (note the influence from, say, WAGA's early 80s open) The next year, WDBB decided to enter Birmingham, and the newscast became known as "Alabama's Nine O'Clock News", with a new theme: A longer version of the 1986 theme for the close:

Even Fisher and Belo sold out to other companies who shelled (NPG and Raycom, respectively). I understand the importance of SSA-JSAs in these smaller markets; they preserve some level of local news and make for more financially sustainable operations. "Desert News Now" (what I call the future KYMA/KSWT in Yuma) should be interesting. Basically, it's Yuma's two heritage news operations, who had no competition but each other for about two decades, against KECY which has had bare minimum local news for almost a year and a half.

It's the second entry this week after no activity in over a year, and I actually have someone's words to back me up on it: "This KFDX sounds like a pretend newscast. Pretty bad." –Mr. NMSA

Yup. There's a promo somewhere in the NewsActive3 collection from the 70s in which they use the shield-5. "5M" and "7R" are references to the TV Guides of the era; as San Francisco had the important 5 and the 7, the Medford and Redding stations got suffixed.

KFDX 1992 open with Advantage: KSWO 1992 open. The theme is "We're Looking Out for You" (NMSA: KFDA 1989). It's really underwhelming, and it looks easily several years old: WKEF 1984. The theme is KPM's Prestige, Theme 1, as used by KTLA in the late 70s: WTVC 1982. Dig that circle-9 variant! No open music in evidence... KSHB 1993 9pm. Yes, KSHB had a newscast as a Fox affiliate. This is something else...it even rivals opens from WBBM and KSAT. The graphic designers should also be shamed for that black and white flickering effect... It may even be a "worst news opens" entrant. A KLAS-specific version of that "laser cameraman" part of the Tron-inspired syndicated graphics. More noteworthy: Signature News. It seems likely that KLAS was using three news packages at once circa 1988: The News Image from Tuesday and And You and Signature News (which may have been bundled) from Telesound. And now to my favorite market in the world...Joplin! KOAM 1986 news update. No music, but this clears up a date question. This was when the station briefly branded as Action (7) News and used TM's Get to Know Us, 1984-86: KODE bumpers from 1993. This sounds like a news theme: KOAM 1995 weather promo. This is a cut of the KMOV custom package they were using at this time. A basket of KODE promos from 1995. Is the news promo at 1:20 using their news theme as background music? It sounds like the one from the 1993 bumpers. Could it be the fabled Interaction?

WFMY 1988-era open, with VTS's "News Leader". This open is a combo of gorgeous 3D animation coupled with an obvious and not-so-good imitation of TVbD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBgz-K_LqUA (notably, Mary Jane McKittrick had come from KAKE and went from "M. J." to "Mary Jane" as her name) WJZ 1988 noon open, first wave of Chroma Cues. I don't think I've heard this cut before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQxGO0g5SAE

John Hambrick has terminal cancer and just weeks to live. He helped lead WEWS to prominence in the early 1970s before going to LA, San Francisco, New York and Miami.

CircleSeven, I think you were the first person anywhere to pick up on this story. The Yuma Sun had nothing on it. December 2012 employment was 25%. Still staggeringly high, but it also hints at a chunk of that 30% figure being seasonal (for tourism and agriculture, I would imagine). The other key Yuma stations, as a refresher, are KECY (Fox, ABC), which has a very young local news operation that was revived in March 2012 (local news had not aired on KECY since its conversion to Fox in the 1990s); KESE (Telemundo), which was planned to have local news but doesn't (not even a KUNA simulcast as I read); and KVYE (Univision), which actually appears to simulcast news from KVER in Palm Springs.

Wow. That is a stunner. KECY could stand to gain a lot of ground here depending on the level of consolidation. A couple things that really stood out... Pappas has been shopping KSWT for 13 months, and the May unemployment rate in Yuma topped 30%.

Ah, so he's taking the opening in Tucson that Ryan Recker vacated to move to Pittsburgh, his childhood home and dream TV market.

WGHP's image in the Piedmont NewsChannel era (and well into 1996!) was really cool, possibly one of my favorites ever. TVbD graphics with a custom news theme. Notably, WGHP was one of the last stations to really change its look to a Fox-esque package (using a Fox logo but TVbD graphics). One of my favorite things about New World in the immediate aftermath of the Fox switch was that its stations still were rather traditional, in some cases changing very little of their news imaging. But Fox thought it "conservative", and the underperformance of the group as a whole was not helping either. Videos: KBJR, KDLH and WDIO in 1991. KDLH is using that WFTV 1988 theme, which has yet another "People You Can Count On" theme to it, and WDIO has The Leading Edge: http://archive.org/details/tobacco_swp91f00

And there's no way they will able to pluck The CW from WGNT—not with Tribune running it.

Wow, that's a complicated history. Is this part of the 1990-92 package? Notably this is the only KCRA open between 1983 and 2009 that's lacking the WTNCF signature, excluding the bump at the beginning. It renders the KCRA logo in white on orange, not green on white. It's voiced by Ed Hopkins. I think this might actually be production music. http://archive.org/details/tobacco_anx27a00

It may be a KCOY blooper reel, but there's no blooper with a 30-second close cut of the WGHP 1984 News Theme inside and a close cut from another Unknown theme!: The matching WGHP 1984 theme open is at 6:34 of the second part of the blooper reel: *** A director's track cut of WCPO, 1995. With Primetime News: *** KPHO. September 1997. 24 Hour News. To say I'm happy is an understatement. This was the latter half of the "Arizona 5 News" era; by now, Paul Turner (not Scott Chapin) was the voice of KPHO. The next year, they'd become CBS 5 News for the first (but not the last) time in their history. *** WXIX's midnight newscast (no, really), 1993. This was a brand-new, cutting-edge (TVbD) look for 1993: KCRA 1990. Whoa, this theme is not in our radar at all? This isn't the Grizzell theme, it's not the 1992 theme, but it's got the WTNCF signature in it... (It looks like we have some changes in the NMSA. The Grizzell theme may be 1986-88, this 1988-90 going by comments, and sample 3 for the Grizzell theme in the NMSA is another theme altogether for 1990-92. That, and there's another KCRA theme hanging in the NMSA's inbox from 1992 (possibly debuted 1991), when they had gone early prime.)

Citadel would be a once-in-a-forever opportunity to buy into a bunch of Iowa markets at once. I wonder if Meredith would consider buying Citadel, for that reason alone.

Former WTLV morning/noon anchor Sally Fox died on July 3 at the age of 58. She was at the station from 1988 to 1995, and while anchoring also founded a concern that runs group homes for the disabled, Angelwood, Inc. A couple ancillary items: -The graphic accompanying the article is from 1991, and it uses a 12 bug that is associated with their 1992-93 image. Looks like the "1992" theme debuted in 1991, and we know as of this week that the "1991" theme debuted in 1989 (or the fall of 1988, when WTLV returned to NBC after eight years with ABC). -The TVSpy article about Fox's death implies that Fox worked at WJXX, when WJXX wasn't on the air until 1997 or connected to WTLV until 2000.

KESQ moved last month into the old KPSP studios, which were remodeled to house separate operations for both stations. So what does an empty studio look like? (The studio switch occurred on June 26; to the relief of all, KESQ is keeping PNP.)

There's an email in Mr. NMSA's inbox about all that. I really like that WTLV theme too. It's truly something. I wonder who composed it...

For once, new stuff in the NewsActive3 collection. WPBF 1992, a cool WJXT "Program Note" slide, a WTLV 1991 Theme close at 12:35 (which is from 1989!), and a higher-quality cut of the (non-NMSA) KTUU 1990 News Theme are some of the highlights.

More Joplin KODE 1992 update: (this is a new one!*) KODE 1994 promos with another news theme (is this the mythical Interaction?): *The NMSA (which has a Joplin reliability rating of nearly 0) says this might be a Gari package called Your TV Friend, at least if the dates hold. But I don't think that even exists. (Any coincidence that KSNF was using Turn To resings with the line "Your TV Friend, KSN"?)

This graphics company did a lot of work for some big clients. You'll recognize WBBM, KCBS, the ABC and CBS networks plus Australia's Network Ten. Also, more Where's the Walrus!